Ferdinand

Had a little dig into this, and rewatched the episode. As it happens they also redid their EPC this summer. The episode discusses that the design is passive. And the epsiode includes an air test @ 33 minutes below. His "High Five" accent reveals a Borat fan, I'd say ! Basically, the roof u-value is 0.13 (EPC = 92), and the arch is insulated on the outside under the green roof. It overhangs at the sides and that is where the uninsulated bits are - must be an interesting joining detail there. Timber frame box walls are 300mm of newspaper clippings. One point I did not remember is that the outside 2 layers of tiles (from 3) are laid in cement, whilst the inside layer is in plaster of Paris. Drainage via a layer of terram or similar, filled with 20 tons of gravel: Main source of heating is a biomass boiler. Has solar PV (with a very nice payment per unit) and also solar thermal. I'd say they knew exactly what they were doing. Well done all round. And, yes, there was the obligatory baby. Links: EPC: https://find-energy-certificate.service.gov.uk/energy-certificate/9676-0036-6304-9432-7200 Programme:

Well - the posties are giving you a break !

Octopussy has now published (on my account anyway) total amounts saved in Saving Sessions. That's 443 MWh, or the annual electricity (not all energy) demand of an average group of around 100 detached houses in the UK, saved by approx 250k customers over 4 sessions. Average electricity demand of detached house = approx 4 MWh. More relevantly, it knocked 108 MW off the peak of demand, by engaging just under 1% of electricity account holders. Gives an insight into potential flexibility. Ballpark that is a reduction of 1/4 to 1/3 in short term electricity demand, when you pay people far more than the cost of the electricity. Analysis: https://octopus.energy/press/believe-it-or-watt-octopus-energy-customers-provide-108mw-of-grid-flexibility-in-first-saving-session-equivalent-of-a-gas-power-station/

Sorry to hear your challenges, @GrantMcscott. There's been quite a bit of nodding to theory on this thread (which is important). FWIW, your floor spec is - to my eye - pretty good rather than reasonable. By ufh only has 90mm of PIR under it, but was built in 2009. Your 150mm will on its own meet the current building regs newbuild value of 0.13 in England, which was not pushed further in the latest update in June 2022, and looks to be here to stay. My suggestion is to get an inexpensive thermal camera, and take a pretty comprehensive set of photos outside and inside whilst it is cold out and and warm in, which will show heat leaks (including warm outward draughts) well. You should also see useful cold spots etc with photos taken inside. Once you have that data then you can decide what to do next. Simple tools you may also find useful are things like (sample sources): A £5-10 hand held point and shoot thermometer: https://cpc.farnell.com/duratool/d03308/infrared-thermometer/dp/IN08363 A couple of £10 or so min/max thermometer / hygrometer https://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Thermometer-Hygrometer-Temperature-Humidity/dp/B00VYRC58I/ It's he simplest form of data logger ! I always have a couple of these around for quick checks. Then you could have a simple datalogger recommended by one of the BH co-conspirators. My house is a little smaller than yours - 200sqm, but I live here on my own (with the squirrels and the foxes) and my energy bill in December is also going to spike. I've been running a couple of rads only (24x7 for some of it which I have just cracked down on), and closed down all the bedrooms except one. Are there any parts of yours you can seal off for the winter, to reduce the volume heated? I don't know about your wood supplies, but have you considered running your woodburner overnight in a damped down mode? One other thought - are you on an optimal electricity tariff for your heating strategy? What would happen if you switched to a cheap overnight tariff and ran the UFH heavily then, and relied on the slab-heat-delay plus wood burner to keep you warm in the day? ATB Ferdinand

You get those on Amazon - which allegedly target the water spray in the correct direction. I met 2 foxes in my garden last night, so I'm looking at this thread. That does not specify what "one" refers to - ultrasound or llama? 🙂 I'll be trying ultrasound to see if our urban foxes are sensitive. Plus hopefully a big spring clean in the garden in due course. F .

Available via trade routes, and legal depending how it is used. Banned from being advertising. A very British fudge.

See the two cost saving threads pinned in the General Forum. https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/forum/48-general-self-build-diy-discussion/ Essentially one is about setting yourself up to save money, and the other is a noticeboard about discounts.

Sarah Beeny's "Twice the House for Half the Money" had a lot of good examples of that sort of approach. There was another one as well where the gimmick was projects digital walkarounds where one proposal was radical and the other conservative that was also good - forgotten the series title.

You learn until you are satisfied you know enough, then use your skill and judgement to make a suitable estimate of where your best option lies 🙂.

I may have missed what standard you intend to build your fabric too. In a near passive house temperatures should fluctuate slowly (eg cool down in 24hrs by 0.5C with all heat sources off) but if heat gets soaked in over a number of days (either by you running the heating or by prolonged hot weather) it can be a devil to cool down. Which is why we spend a lot of time here discussing strategies. Most people do some things, and make provision to do other things easily in the future (fitted for but not with - see the Navy Destroyers which are now getting land attack missiles they have not had before because the Russkies are getting tetchy, or the Aircraft Carriers and the catapults that they have provision for, ish, but will not be fitted for 10 or 20 years.). Then there are various after-market fixes you can apply if you got it a little wrong and find out later. My house is not near passive so it fluctuates more. I have some good things like electric UFH in the bathroom upstairs and a shower rad in the shower downstairs, and rads in all the rooms upstairs. I don't use the ufh upstairs at the mo as I am using the downstairs (which is gas powered) rather than the lecky one upstairs which costs more per amount of hot water. Examples of what people do are from the minor - fit a towel rad that may be used more extensively for a heat boost if needed (in a near passive house), or fit a plug socket and bit of wood in the wall where they can eg retrofit a 200w loft type heater in a bedroom later , up to fitting an unused circuit of their ufh. An example of an after market fix if eg oh-bugger-the-big-sexy-windows-cause-too-much-heat-and-SWMBO-is-unhappy-that-hubby-has-turned-into-a-moaning-lobster could be solar blocking external film on the windows. You need to do enough contingency planning such that you are satisfied you can allow for the future. And document it so the next owner knows when you have moved or popped your clogs. Ferdinand

Relying on a deed from 192x when the laws were all thrown up in the air more recently and rewritten heavily (ie post WW2), might not be *that* secure IMO. But I wish you ATB.

To get that information without charge, you may be able to put in an FOI.

Can you add to that. What do you mean by "public footpath"? In England (And Wales? Not sure about Scotland, which is a law unto itself in many things) it means an established public right of way which can be travelled by pedestrians (and everyone included in that definition). Of which there are 250,000km. Is that what you actually mean, @Temp? Or do you mean verge, or pavement / footpath (ie 'sidewalk'), or something else? I have not seen 3m in connection with foot traffic, except in reference to the width of verge where a footway or cycleway is to be considered "physically separate" from the carriageway in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges. If you have a cite, that would be great. I may well be slightly overegging this, as I am currently interested in these categories since I am working with Equality law to have wheelchair blocking obstacles removed from public footpaths, bridleways and cycletracks in my locality. Cheers Ferdinand

The one I dealt with had a map of which land was included in the Highways Land, with a map in possession of the Highways Authority. My consultant knew how to get a copy after I told him that I knew that had been the position from way back when, and told him to go find the proof. The Nimby Neighbours were trying to play the "not enough room for the required junction" game to stop the Planning Application. As ever anything becomes a lever to stop it. It is quite common for techniial "ownership" to extend to the middle of the road, but the right to use for highway is more like an overruling Right of Way. When we sold our large family home, technical land stuff caused havoc because the road had been moved 10m further away from our fence when the road was realigned by the govt when the M1 was built 200m away, and the buyer's adviser refused to believe we were unequivocally allowed to drive over the extra 10m of verge coming out of our drive. We had been there 37 years. It's a game of GO that someone needs to know how to play. Or they could circumvent you. It is incredibly important to come across as someone with heft, rather than as Mr Angry. When we sold out ransom strip I mention above, by getting a good RICS negotiator in we got multiple times the price initially offered. My other tip is once you are sure your position is unassailable under appropriate advice, be prepared to use time as a lever and let the process take several years. Then there will come a time to grasp the nettle and make your move. You win the battle in the preparation. F

There are procedures for testing your concrete for damp - most involve drilling a small hole. As a crude check, tape come polythene to the floor and see if any moisture emerges underneath it in a day or two. (Shoot me down if this is wrong, guys). On you floor build up, I would seriously consider trimming your doors to get a but more insulation in - even 15mm of celotex will make a difference as the first layer of insulation has the most benefit. Is there s thicker version of those underlay tiles? Document whatever you do so that you can make your EPC assessor acknowledge it. On underlay, have a look at the roll products from manufacturers, as these sometimes contain adhesive strips along the sides which stick together - though those under-tiles also look OK. I think I used this one from QuickStep. https://www.quick-step.co.uk/en-gb/accessories/qsudlbp15_basic-plus-15-m2 F

Reading this, it is a potential goldmine if that is what you want. No reason why you can't be asking for a serviced plot for your or your parents retirement bungalow, or one with a bungalow built on it, or an access to an otherwise not-developable part of your garden. Or 3%-6% or more of GDV seems quite possible if you have a Sword of Damocles over them, and there is no alternative. Take some advice as to value. This could be half your pension fund. Criminal damage may not be enough, since you can potentially (or now) put a fence or a wall round it, or grow the hedge back. That won't unblock the condition if it is as you say, as the Council will require it to be legally protected. My one thought is whether it is already zoned as Highways Land, or some other overruling right. When I got PP for a Housing Estate on family land, the people across the road were most annoyed to discover that "their" "private" verge between the fence and the footway had been zoned as extra Highways Land for half a century. Allowed the extra road width for a junction and an upgraded footpath to be a shared cycle / ped zone as part of the S106. We got rather shafted on the per plot price (30% of predicted value) but it was 2013, and we are about to cop a bit more for selling the 1m ransom strip we kept all the way round it to leverage access to the next zone. Bloody County Council have forgotten to require the next housing estate site along to widen their 200m of footpath, so our new improved 2015 active travel facility suddenly goes back to a poor footpath. Ferdinand

I missed this entirely, but then I've ben distracted the least year or two. My comments would be be clear what your objective is - do you want the money, or the peace? And: 1 - Yes to professional advice. Possibly prelim advice first. 2 - If you want to make it more difficult, get Planning to build something there and that will boost the value. Ideally a dwelling, but a garden room or garage may be an extra lever. Near me there is a very strangely shaped garage put in right against his boundary 30 years ago by someone who wanted to make development of part of the rec behind his house more difficult, as the County Council were sniffing around for playing fields to sell off. F

Thanks all. I am currently experimenting with the best way of doing winter heating with the heat pump and the gas, and it's been a bit chilly today at 4C outside all day. I have a medium sized household ("10l") dehumidifier which has a humidistat controller which I can set by %RH, and also a timer. Unfortunately I have lost it - maybe need to check the depths of the garage. The last person who borrowed it is adamant I have had it back. I tried it with the smaller commercial dehumidifier, but that seems to be overkill for the requirement, so I will send out a search party tomorrow. Cheers.

I think to address the bills you need to focus on two things - 1) The rest of your fabric, and 2) Heat loss caused by air leakage. ie Do the other half of the full renovation you have started - arguably all the right notes but not quite in the conventional order. Your ufh celotex is about the same as mine, which is 90mm. Not quite as much as I would like which would be 125-130mm, but the previous owner restored and extended my bungalow by rebuilding from 3 walls and a hole in the ground. 1) is going to be Cavity Wall Insulation and/or IWI or EWI. If you look at CWI, I would say do it carefully and go for phenolic, as it is much more insulative. 2) This is the normal process we all do in renovating, about which there is much material on the site. Low hanging fruit is things like gaps in the wall, draughts around pipe entries and your postbox, insulated and sealed loft hatches and backdraught shutters in fans (or Heat Recovery fans). And it goes on from there, with things like unsealed tops to cavity walls such that your cavity is linked to the loft above the insulation, and hence the outside. Are your floors well sealed for air leaks? Then there is less obvious stuff like escapes through your cooker hood outlet - I currently have mice coming in through the external end of mine, which means I have a direct hole to the outside from within my heated envelope. You will also need to consider ventilation. 3) One of our members did a heat loss calculator which may help you think and prioitise. Here:

I'm playing a little with drying washing with a dehunidifier, as some here do. Question: what level of humidity is required for it to be "dry"? When I have done it in the past just using the ventilation and the bathroom radiator, I have accepted something like 35-40% as "dry". I see that my (neglected) tumble dryer has a scale for "cupboard dry" and "iron dry", with varying times. What humidity numbers do others use? Cheers Ferdinand

(Ooops old thread - never mind.) I would say absolutely yes. They can get expensive because you will need a low end commercial one. But like a digger I think that if you sell it on you should do OK after the project. A few years ago I obtained a couple of commercial dehumidifiers from a commercial setup closing on retirement of the owner and saved myself about £1500 over new prices. One is a 40l/day, and one is 60l/day by rating, and in a house I had had skimmed the small one was pulling out a soft bucket of water every day for two or three days, with a fan heater running to raise it to 25C or so. No cracks. Saved my bacon when it was tight between the plasterer and the electrician. (I have them also for rented properties as an insurance in case of disaster having once had to hire one, plus a 10l domestic one with a humidistat and internal tank). As a place to start I would suggest the Broughton CR40, which is my smaller one above, and is compact. Around £550 new, or can be bought from Ebay most of the time. Size is knee high. The CR40 is comfortable to carry, but a small person might find it awkward - 23kg. Brochure attached for info. Ebac are also a reliable supplier. Don't go mad with a really big one as they get very heavy very quickly, and you may need help getting it in your car if it is 40-60kg. Get one smaller one, then another one if it works. Ferdinand industrial_dehumidifier.pdf

Go for one with a large number of very positive reviews, and as few -ve ones as possible. I have had three or four of these - the only problem I have had is when they get knocked off somewhere and fail to bounce. Alternatively a Black Friday household size dehumidifier may come with a built in humidity meter.

I shouldn't think you will need to spend £1500, even for a new one. But I am not *that* up to date. I assume you are talking airless. Mine is a Wagner one which comes on a trolley with a 15m hose. It has happily done more than one house and a 700 sqm gym in an industrial unit, which was of the order of half that price new. But I am going back 4 or 5 years. F

If @Icevergeis barking up the right tree, you could perhaps consider insulating then putting a storage floor in the loft, tightly jointed.